City Council to meet Monday, June 24, to pass new ordinances, ClearZoning

A special meeting of the Belleville City Council has been set for 6 p.m., Monday, June 24, to consider and pass updated zoning ordinances and the ClearZoning digital version of the ordinances.
The planning commission has been working on the package for many months with planning consultant Jill Bahm and at its meeting last week finally voted unanimously to recommend it to the city council for adoption.
At Monday’s regular meeting of the city council, the zoning ordinance package was given to council members for study before Monday’s special meeting.
The controversial part of the current zoning ordinance for downtown businesses that required retail on the ground-floor of all buildings is being changed to allow office space in 50% of ground-floor area in each downtown block. B-3 zoning is being changed to B-2 in the downtown area.
The ClearZoning arrangement of the ordinances will be put on line for everyone to access at any time. This is expected to improve development in the city and answer questions for residents without having to contact city hall.
On Tuesday morning, City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said the council wants to pass the new ordinances as soon as possible because activity is picking up in the building department, including the proposed Davenport strip mall.
She said they would like to have it passed before the next planning commission meeting and because of the size of the document, the council may take a lot of time discussing it.
The zoning ordinances/ClearZoning is the only item on next Monday’s agenda.
In other business at the June 17, 44-minute city council meeting, the council:
• Approved waiving cost of fees or licenses usually required by the city for the Garden Walk vendors on Sunday, July 21, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., on the library grounds. This is part of the 8th-annual Garden Walk, a benefit that raises money for the library;
• Approved on a 4-1 vote the final budget amendments for fiscal year 2012-13, which ends June 30. Trustee Brian Blackburn cast the only nay vote. The budget was last amended two weeks ago. There was much discussion about last-minute changes by Molly Goike, the city’s financial consultant from Plante Moran, who was not at the meeting. The general fund budget requires $11,050 from the fund balance, instead of the $8,886 budgeted. Last-minute necessary expenditures for the fire department, including almost $8,000 for the quarterly payment of salaries, was discussed. Police department overtime salaries of $6,500 were added, along with $6,000 for legal services for prosecutions. Mayor Kerreen Conley said some line items could go into deficit and City Manager Kollmeyer said this situation is always the case during the last two weeks of the fiscal year;
• Heard Mayor Conley report on items discussed at last Friday’s Council of Western Wayne meeting, including an announcement that DTE will start changing all of its meters to smart meters this fall. If people don’t want them they can pay $9.80 a month to have meter readers come out; and
• Approved the last accounts payable of the fiscal year of $109,793.18 with the following department purchases in excess of $500: to Advanced Public Safety, Inc., $675.77 for police vehicle equipment; to Dell Marketing L.P., $2,138.10 for police vehicle computer; to DEQ, $2,000 for storm water fee; to Feld Fire, $2,600 for a ventilation fan for the fire dept.; to Foremost Equipment, $971 for battery replacement for fire dept.; to Home Depot, $589 for replaced generator for fire dept.; to J&T Towing, $1,275 for police impound fees; to McCoig, $902 for cemetery headstone foundations; to Priority One Emergency, $991.50 for police computer installation; and to Wayne County, $735 for police lodging at Dickerson.